Prerequisite: The ability to cast at least one spell
You have learned techniques to enhance your attacks with certain kinds of spells, gaining the following benefits:
When you cast a spell that requires you to make an attack roll, the spell's range is doubled.
Your ranged spell attacks ignore half cover and three-quarters cover.
You learn one cantrip that requires an attack roll. Choose the cantrip from the bard, cleric, druid, sorcerer, warlock, or wizard spell list. Your spellcasting ability for this cantrip depends on the spell list you chose from: Charisma for bard, sorcerer, and warlock; Wisdom for cleric or druid; or Intelligence for wizard.
Spell Sniper: S-N-I-P-E-R
Review by Sam West, Twitter:@CrierKobold
Sharpshooter is a well known, frequently taken feat that has the potential to radically change how a game is played. Spell Sniper is supposedly the caster equivalent, yet causes so much less of an uproar. The reality is, despite the first two lines being nearly equal to Sharpshooter’s, missing out on the +10 to damage and instead picking up a random cantrip isn’t comparable. Plus, some of the longest ranged cantrips reach out to 120 feet, meaning with Spell Sniper you’re able to hit from 240 feet out. That’s under half the distance a Sharpshooter can hit with a longbow.
While this isn’t close to Sharpshooter in power, I think this is probably closer to an appropriate power level for a feat aimed at giving you the long ranged sniper feeling. It needs a tiny bit more than it currently has to find its home on my sheets, but ignoring three-quarters and half cover is a huge deal, often acting like a +2-+5 to hit. When you’re making attack rolls with spell slots on the line, every bonus to hit can be the difference between getting nothing or something out of a resource. That has a lot of weight.
The range bonus isn’t as oppressive as Sharpshooter’s namely because the damage you’re putting out is typically half of or less than half of a Sharpshooter’s, is normally gated to one attack a round, and has less than half the distance Sharpshooter offers in most cases. It isn’t going to break an encounter in half if a Wizard gets five free Fire Bolts out; ten to twenty free longbow attacks is a completely different story. Eldritch Blast comes up here, and can greatly benefit from Spell Sniper as you’re getting more attacks at a longer range, but the Eldritch Blaster doesn’t need this. Normally you’re content with just Agonizing Blast, but if you’re goal is to warp the game like a Sharpshooter, you can pick up Eldritch Sight and Spell Sniper to get that 600 ft. three quarters cover breaking missile battery from hell you’re looking for. It just takes two invocations and a feat instead of just a feat in a martial class to get there.
If you are picking up Spell Sniper, you’re probably at a spot where you don’t care all that much about the bonus cantrip. This isn’t something you pick up to become a spell sniper, but something you pick up when you’re already firing blasts from hundreds of feet out. On those characters, the bulk of the mid to upper tier spells you’ll be casting will cause creatures to make saves, not have you make an attack roll. There are next to no spells past 2nd level that ask you to make a spell attack roll, leaving this feat really only usable when you pair it with the early tier stuff. In that tier, getting Guidance on your wizard or Mage Hand on your cleric is nice, but the rest of the text probably isn’t better than just Magic Initiate. If you’re taking it for the cantrip, getting an entire extra spell slot, an extra 1st level spell, and an additional bonus cantrip seems like a way better deal than what often will feel like overkill on spell’s ranges that only applies to cantrips you’ll stop wanting to cast in three or four levels.
Spell Sniper really is close to being good enough. I think a good chunk of characters in particularly tactical combat driven games can find value in it in the early tier, specifically on wizards who need to conserve slots or sorcerers looking to twin Fire Bolts. If you fit into this camp, give it a try. In a few builds you might be able to leverage it as a tool to help perform a Sharpshooter-like feel of constant oppressive ranged destruction. There are homes for Spell Sniper; whether or not your sheet is one of them is tricky to figure out. If you don’t know, I’d stick with Magic Initiate or just an ability score increase to your spellcasting modifier. Those are consistently great.
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